One in four US children suffers 'chronic bullying': study

Nearly one in four US children suffers from chronic bullying at school, a problem that may lead to poor academic performance and low confidence over time, researchers said Monday.

The findings in the Journal of Educational Psychology are based on a study of 383 children who were followed from kindergarten through high school.

"It's extremely disturbing how many children felt bullied at school," said lead author Gary Ladd, a psychology professor at Arizona State University, who described the work as the first long-term bullying study of its kind.

"For teachers and parents, it's important to know that victimization tends to decline as kids get older, but some children never stop suffering from bullying during their school years."

The study began in Illinois, but since many families moved during its decade-long duration, the subjects were living in 24 different states by the time the research ended.

Contrary to popular belief that bullying is prominent among older kids, researchers found that bullying was "more severe and frequent in elementary school and tended to taper off for most students as they got older," said the report.

"However, 24 percent of the children in the study suffered chronic bullying throughout their school years, which was consistently related to lower academic achievement and less engagement in school."

Researchers gave annual surveys to the children and asked the youths to describe their experiences with bullying and whether they had been hit, picked on or verbally abused by other kids.